Saturday, June 29, 2013

(4) I am finishing The Swan Thieves
by Elizabeth Kostova
Click here for the look inside.
I have been savoring this book for some time.
I can pick it up and fall back into it right away even after a long period where I have been reading other books. I love the way this author writes.
If you like in-depth characterization, setting descriptions that give you an almost photo image, historical fiction, good narration,
you may enjoy this author and this book.

This is the book I took with me to read ...

(5) ... one day last week when I spent the day in the town ofWhite River Junction, Vermont
Picture credit to their website. I forgot my camera.
I had to wait for my husband at one point, so I had a coffee at the Tuckerbox, a local coffee shop with big old wooden tables and comfy chairs and interesting people.
Then I wandered into the White River Yarns shop.
One of the most extensive collection of beautiful yarns that I have ever seen. Also, a very friendly shop. I bought some yarn and a crochet hook but I needed a pattern. I found one in their lending library and spent the an hour or two sitting on one of the benches in front of their flowerboxes outside their door. The young woman in the shop told me I could take the pattern with me and would not accept payment for it, even though she knew I was just visiting and might not be back anytime soon to return it to their shelves. As it was raining off and on, I also enjoyed the shelter of their awning, the green one visible on the left in the above photo.

Friday, June 21, 2013

This tree looked so lovely against the blue summer sky that I had to take a picture. It grows outside the door at the one-woman tailor shop I visited with my daughter to have her wedding gown fitted. The tailor is a family friend whose son went to high school with my daughter. I admired her tree and she asked me if I wanted one. Apparently, she has them spring up like weeds in her yard and is always looking for someone to take one away. I am negotiating with my hubby, who is not sure we need another tree in our yard. I am reading up on the care of these trees here and here.

I am pondering.

Please share any thoughts you may have on these trees for me to further my ponderings.

(2) Word Ponder

When I was pondering on a word to pull these random rambles together, this word came to mind so I rambled around the search engines and found this interesting site for word lovers ...

Pondering this word brought to mind, "Words," the old Bee Gee song added to my player. This song is a old favorite. I was happy to find that Playlist.com had this in the music stream

﻿

(2) fabric pondering

I am a quilty ponderer.

I build quilty castles in the air.

My "wool gathering" is more "cotton gathering."

I usually have an image of a quilt I want to make somewhere in my mind.

I am also constantly meditating and rethinking my quilts in progress.

This week the project On My Design Wall that has me pondering are the circle fabrics in this quilt. The top is sewn and I am adding the applique circles, but I have two fabrics that did not make the cut in the original plan that I want to add to the top. One of them is the lovely green on the left. In the process of deciding if I wanted to add a circle, I decided to add another row of blocks on the outside edges that will make the quilt the wide queen size I like for a personal bed quilt.

(3) Pondering a Stamp Sized Quilt

I am pondering and working on a blog hop project that calls for making

a "stamp" quilt.

(4) Pondering Teeny Tiny Strips of Fabric

This teeny tiny quilt called for cutting teeny tiny 3/4" strips.

The traditional quilter's seam is 1/4" wide.

Doing the math here ...

1/4" strip - two 1/4" seams = a finished 1/4 inch piece in the quilt.

Pictures of the teeny tiny quilt will appear on my blog on next Wednesday.

(5) ButterflyNappingPondering

My Friday post would not feel complete without at least one feline.

My Butterfly has been a constant helper and companion in my sewing room this week. She has spent much of her time curled up in the sunny window. Both she and I are feeling better.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

This is a close up of the WIP on my design wall. I have been testing a new design from my talented friend, Jess Smith @ The Quilt & Needle, where the complete pattern will be released soon. I really like the way this is working up. This quilt is all about the fabric. I have the top sewn and am deciding of the applique circle fabrics and placements.﻿

circle cutter

There are full size templates in the pattern, but I am making use of my favorite circle cutter for the smaller circles. I will be leaving this pretty summery top up on my design wall while I catch up on my other quilty commitments.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

As my regular readers know, the word "applique" makes me nervous. It is the one quilty technique that cause all kinds of consternation for me. So many of you do this so effortlessly, that I always feel all thumbs when I look at any pattern that requires even the most basic applique.

Here is a method I have started using that I actually enjoy!

For this I use a light fusible interfacing, but I do not fuse it to the back.

I cut a piece of fusible the same size and shape that I want my applique to be.

For this heart shaped applique, I cut the shape after I stitched, but for circles and other shapes I often cut them both the beforehand.

For this heart I used a pieced square

paper template on interfacing

cut

pinned

stitched

trimmed to shape

I cut a hole in the middle of the interfacing.

opening cut in interfacing

Turn right side out and smooth into shape

front

cut background fabric square

Fold background block to center applique.

Press front to background

Press back

Applique success!

Ready to finish!

I will stitch around this applique with a bling hand stitch or maybe use a machine decorative stitch.

If you are as timid about applique as I am, I hope you will find this method easy and give it a try,

I am using this method for my current quilt test project, which has applique circles and plan to use it again soon for another project.